Is this Scotland Itinerary do-able? Looking for suggestions/comments.
 

This is our first trip to Scotland, so any tips from experienced travelers are most welcome! So far our itinerary is as follows:

Day 1 Arrive in Glasgow airport early afternoon. Pick up rental car (leaving at B&B, won't be driving in Glasgow city). Overnight in Glasgow area.

Day 2 Drive from Glasgow to Skye. Overnight in Skye.

Day 3 Ferry from Skye to Hebrides (Uig to Tarbert). Visit Blackhouse Village, Calanais Standing Stones. Overnight on Harris or Lewis.

Day 4 Ferry from Hebrides to Skye. Visit Talisker Distillery, Eilean Donan Castle. Drive to Inverness. Overnight in Inverness

Day 5 Drive from Inverness to Aberdeen. Overnight in Aberdeen.

Day 6 Drive from Aberdeen to Edinburgh (leaving car at B&B, won't be driving in city). Visit Edinburgh Castle, take bus tour of city. Overnight in Edinburgh.

Day 7 Visit Rosslyn Chapel and New Lanark World Heritage Site. Drive to Glasgow. Overnight in Glasgow.

Day 8 Drive to Glasgow airport for morning flight.

Hello! I think it will a lot of driving and a lot of scenery seen from the car window, IMHO. The 'Plaid Blur' tour!

Don't underestimate driving times. We drove a lot from Skye to Glasgow, and it was broken up by a night in Croabh Haven. It was still a lot of driving. Figure about 35 mph on any of the roads except perhaps between Inverness and Edinburgh. Figure on stopping a lot to enjoy the scenery.

If you've only 8 days, I'd pick one area to explore. You'll be back someday, really! Don't try to do it all at once. We did almost the same trip (in reverse) in 2000 in almost as many days, and we felt like we were constantly on the run.

We are going again this summer, and are spending 3-4 nights in each place. At least 2 would be ok, remember one is usually taken up with travel, leaving little time to explore and relax.

Thanks for commenting, we were wondering about driving times. We're trying to make sure we cover all our "must-sees' as in all likelihood this will probably be our one and only trip to Scotland- we live in Nova Scotia- but as you can see most of what we actually want to stop and visit is either in the Hebrides/Ske area or Edinburgh area. What parts of the drives would you suggest shortening or cutting out? Any suggested routes? We do like driving and scenery but don't want to leave ourselves too short on time for our stops.

way too much to do in only 6 days.
Also too many overnights in different places.
You will be spending your whole trip in the car. Prioritize to decide what you really MUST see.

The drive up to Skye is long, on windy roads. It will take you most of a day to get up there especially since you will also want to stop along the way for sightseeing, picture taking - especially in Glen Coe and at Eileen donan castle. Personally I would stay on skye and not visit the Hebrides. Also, I would proabably skip Inverness.

You might even consider not trekking up to Skye at all. It is a long way and there are many sights to see nearer to the cities which are very beautiful, with plenty to see and do. Such as Stirling and the Trossachs area. Also the city of Edinburgh is not to rushed....If possible, I would allocate 2 nights there becuase It is a wonderful city.

There are some really experienced people on these boards that can give you much better advicet than I, so hopefully they'll see the post.

Good luck.

My advice would be staying in Glasgow the first night (no driving while jetlagged!), driving up to Oban or the surrounding area for 2 nights, then to Skye for 3 nights, then head back down through Glencoe. Spend a night there, and back to Glasgow for the trip home.

Skye is incredibly gorgeous, and deserves several days to explore. Oban is a sweet seaside town (though getting a bit touristy). You can see Eilan Donan on the way. I'd leave the Hebrides, unless you want to try a day trip up to the isles. The ferry isn't long from Uig to Tarbert, but Calanais is halfway up the isle... up to you.

The others are being too kind - this itinerary is just nutty. Meant in the nicest possible way :)

There is no way you can do all of that in what is essentially 6.5 days. Well you <i>could</i> drive that far - but so could long distance truck drivers. But they aren't on holiday/sightseeing.

You can't compare driving in Scotland w/ what you may do back home. So - what are your &quot;must sees&quot;? Then we can help you work out a reasonable itinerary.

Our priorities are
1) Blackhouse Village
2) Rosslyn Chapel
3) A castle (we are looking at both Eilean Donan and Edinburgh but if we only see one that is fine)
4) New Lanark World Heritage Site.

Aside from that, we're looking forward to the scenery and some nice pubs in the evenings. Any idea how best to cover this? We haven't booked any B&amp;Bs yet so everything is flexible. Inverness and Aberdeen are not musts, we can cut them out if we need to athough we thought the coastal drive between looked nice.
We really appreciate the input!

just a couple of very quick comments right now since I have to dash . . . but others will jump in.

1) Eilean is strictly a drive-by - 10 minute photo op. It is NOT a castle to visit. There are quite literally 20+ other castles along your possible routes that really would merit a visit. Edinburgh Castle on the other hand is worth a 2 - 3 hour visit - not even counting the rest of the city.

2) Your musts are all over the country - way too far apart to reasonably do in your very few days, unless you just want to check places off a list and spend hours in the car to get to the next check mark .

Ever see National Lampoon's European Vacation? :)


The one item farthest out is the blackhouses, and they don't have any closer than Lewis. So I would suggest either choosing your northern two requirements or your southern two.

For the northern two, how about this suggestion:

Fly into Inverness, stay 2 nights. On day trips from Inverness, there are dozens of castles in the Grampian region, the Castle Trail. Also along there is the Whisky Trail.

Then drive to Skye for 2 nights. This isn't a terrible drive, but it will take a good chunk of the day.

Ferry up to Lewis for 2 more nights.

Take the ferry back to Ullapool, drive back to Inverness for the final 2 nights. Fly home from Inverness.

The southern route I would suggest most of your days near Edinburgh, as both Roslyn and Lanark are within day trip distance of the city. Again, plenty to do to explore.

If you had 12 days, I would say your itinerary could be done. However, with only 8 (less, due to jetlag and travel times), I would not...

Good luck!

As others have suggested, I agree there is too much driving in your trip. Driving on two lane twisty roads (as prevail in most of Scotland) and of course using stick and on the right hand side is challenging and fairly slow. The rest of this note is about the NE (you have suggested you might drive from Aberdeen to Inverness) where we have spent considerable time.

First, Inverness and Aberdeen are not themselves very interesting. And the driving distances are long. unless you want to explore this region, you might want to skip your Aberdeen stop and go direct to Edinburgh. You could even drop your car and take a train or plane south(the drive up the center of the country is not very interesting)

If you choose to keep this leg, There are a lot of interesting Castles and other sights in the NE of Scotland (Grampian), and of course Culloden and the Spey Valley with its whiskey distilleries, Walkers and Baxters factories, scenic walks in mountains and seacoast and charming small towns. If you drop this leg, you could still explore the region from Inverness or a nearby town. Culloden, Cawdor and the whiskey trail towns would make a good daytrip.
Note also that the larger cities might not be the most attractive place for you to stay in this region - there are many country hotels - modest to fancy - or B&amp;Bs in smaller places which would be more appealing. Old towns like Elgin, Fochabers, Cullen, Banff, Dufftown, Craigallachi, etc. would be nicer to stay in than Inverness or Aberdeen, for example.

Sounds like my kind of trip. I am a bit different tho. I would X out Eilean Donan and Rosslyn Chapel. I would leave Harris/Lewis for another trip. Why Inverness? It should be avoided at all cost.

I suggested Inverness as a central spot to do day trips - but someplace closer in, like the village I'm staying in (Grantown-on-Spey) would be much nicer, IMHO :)

One more comment about way too much driving. As suggested above, with only a week, I would pick one major centre and do day-trips from there. On my trip, we spent 4 days in Edinburgh, and I would really like to go back and spend 2 weeks (or more) there alone. We spent most of a day at Edinburgh castle.

Keep in mind that Scottish roads are very different from Canadian ones. Other than around major centres, the roads are single lane, very narrow and twisty (generally no shoulder to speak of). Add onto that the fact that you're driving on the other side of the road... it can be a nerve-wracking experience.

It is possible to rent a car with automatic transmission (we did when we were there a few years ago) and I would encourage you to do so (one less thing to adapt to).

Here's my $.02:

Our first trip to Scotland was in 1999. We covered less ground than you are proposing, but in 3 more days than you have. Our route was a modified circuit (landed in Aberdeen and departed from Edinburgh). Our 10 nights were divided as follows: 4 single night stays (Dee-side, Drumnadrochit, Spean Bridge, Edinburgh airport) and 3 two-night stays (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Trossachs).

1. Two days are pretty much a minimum for Edinburgh. I'd say the same for Glasgow, which I LOVE, but many people skip it entirely.

2. We loved every minute of our trip. It gave us an overview of the country, although there are entire areas that we never reached (and still want to see) and others that we breezed through too quickly (Skye on a day trip). We could not have covered more ground, however.

3. There will ALWAYS be things you'd like to see and can't. After 4 trips to Scotland I strongly feel that way!

4. As far as castles - do Stirling or Edinburgh to get a real fortified medieval castle experience. (They are similar enough that you wouldn't need to do both with limited time.) Eilean Donan is very pretty from the outside but all 4 of us rated the inside as a waste of time. For one thing, it is not a faithful reconstruction.

Many of Scotland's castles are more along the lines of strong manor houses. Do your research and see which ones fit your interests and your route.

5. Leave yourself time for stopping for the view or to enjoy something along the way.

6. Consider going straight to Edinburgh from your arrival at the Glasgow airport. It is not terribly far, and you could take public transportation (picking up your car at the Edinburgh airport when you leave town for your driving tour). This way you can work off your jet lag in Edinburgh - on foot rather than driving.

7. Rent an automatic. It is more expensive, but on a trip where you are doing LOTS of driving it will be worth it. You are likely to be juggling maps, cameras, looking at views, etc. as you drive. Even with 2 adults/drivers I think it makes sense.

I have no claim to expertise, having only been to Scotland once, but we found this site helpful for anticipating driving distances and times:

http://www.theaa.com/travelwatch/pla...jsp?database=B

I think the suggestion of picking either your northern two &quot;Musts&quot; or the southern two is a good one. To try to see the Isle of Lewis, New Lanark and Edinburgh in one short trip is (IMO) too much, and I'm someone who likes to cram in as much as possible.

The New Lanark Heritage site could easily be combined with parts of the Borders, which are beautiful (if not as jaw-droppingly stunning as some of the western isles).

There is also some lovely scenery in the western part of the country (Argyll) without going all the way out to the isles.

Happy planning--

Wow! You've all given us a lot to think about, will take some time to review maps and absorb it all.

I like the idea of heading straight for Edinburgh from the airport as there isn't anything in particular we'd like to see in Glasgow (although I'm sure it's a lovely city). If we waited and got our rental the next day, what would be the best way to travel from Glasgow airport to Edinburgh?

bus into central Glasgow, then train to Edinburgh. I Quick bus ride and less than an hour on the train.

So your priorities are all in Orkney or in/near Edinburgh ? I suggest - 1. visit Edinburgh, doing trips out to Rosslyn Chapel &amp; New Lanark; 2. fly to Orkney &amp; rent car to tour; 3. fly back to Glasgow.